Background: Fiona Ma grew up in an immigrant family and worked as an accountant before entering politics. She earned degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Golden Gate University, and Pepperdine University. Ma has spent decades in public office, serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the California State Assembly, and on the State Board of Equalization. She was elected California State Treasurer in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.

Campaign: Ma is running a traditional campaign backed by major labor unions and establishment Democrats. Her platform focuses on state finance, highlighting her record of funding affordable housing, schools, and small businesses. She emphasizes her economic experience, such as regulating the cannabis market and collecting tax revenue from online retailers. She positions herself as a steady leader who can successfully manage the state budget during tough economic times.

Controversies: Ma's campaign has faced heavy criticism over a 2021 sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former employee. The lawsuit alleged inappropriate behavior during business trips, which resulted in a $350,000 settlement paid with taxpayer funds. Ma strongly denies the claims, calling them baseless, and stated that government lawyers settled the case against her wishes. Opponents continue to use this taxpayer-funded settlement to question her ethics.

Background: Gloria Romero grew up in a hardworking family; her father worked on railroads and her mother had a sixth-grade education. She went on to earn a PhD and worked for years as a university professor in Los Angeles. She entered politics as a Democrat and served nearly 12 years in the California State Legislature, making history as the first woman to become the Senate Majority Leader. In a major political shift in September 2024, she officially left the Democratic Party and became a Republican, stating that her former party had abandoned working-class families.

Campaign: Romero launched her campaign for California Lieutenant Governor in January 2026 as a Republican candidate. She is running on a shared political ticket with Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. Her campaign focuses heavily on education reform, promising to use her seat on university boards to lower college tuition and connect education directly to real-world jobs. She also campaigns to break California's one-party monopoly, lower the state's cost of living, and clear brush more aggressively to prevent wildfires.

Controversies: Romero has long been a highly polarizing figure due to her stance on public education, specifically her authorship of the "Parent Trigger" law, which allowed parents to turn failing public schools into charter schools. While she was a Democrat, this heavy support for charter schools fractured her relationship with powerful teachers' unions, who accused her of trying to destroy public education. Her critics also targeted her for backing Proposition 32 in 2012, a campaign finance measure that unions claimed was designed to silence worker voices. Most recently, her sudden switch to the Republican party, endorsement of Donald Trump, and vocal opposition to progressive policies on gender identity and crime have drawn fierce backlash from her former Democratic colleagues.